Mikado Tatsudoshi
'Appearance' This somewhat exotic looking man bears the features of the People of Hé: his slanted eyes, the angular features of his face and slightly olive skin mark him as such, though his skin tone does look a little off -- a bit pale, compared to most of his ethnicity, though not unhealthily so. Perhaps there is a trace of Western blood in him. Long black hair is tied together in a ponytail with two strands that frame his rather handsome face, clear eyes of steel gray color with a somewhat mischievous look to them always carefully observe their environment. His build looks athletic. Lean and powerful, though his movements are anything but precise or fluid, courtesy of the wheelchair he is strapped to. His legs look rather mangled, making the reason obvious. Nonetheless, his clothes are immaculate; a fine white shirt underneath a black vest, with pants of the same color and fine, polished boots to complete the image. The outfit is obviously a custom fit and well cared for, though considering his condition he likely had help getting into it. Points of Interest: Crippled due to crushed legs; only capable of getting around in a wheelchair. 'Personality' Mikado Tatsudoshi. A very driven man, tempered by a painful past that he had to overcome and many tribulations and travails in his long life. His beginnings may not have been particularly humble, but having fallen to the lowest of the low early on, he knows all too well what awaits those who aren't up to the task and step forward on their own. Luckily, that's not a problem for Mikado. Not anymore. Highly charismatic and intelligent, he is a Renaissance man, a leader, a schemer and one hell of a bastard. Playing things fair and using his power for the benefit and good of others killed him, centuries ago. Mere luck brought him back, surged him to life while everything else around him had been devastated beyond a hope of repair. The trauma of the whole event had left him in a catatonic stasis and, once the Jade Masks jolted him out of that, a gibbering wreck for quite some time before he managed to center himself and pull himself free once again. Once was horrible enough. Mikado is through with playing nice. This time, he'll be ruthless, he'll be everything he needs to be to get what he desires above all else: power. The power to control himself, to exert control over others and his surroundings. Too long has he been without any of those and grasping it has now become basic instinct for him; indeed, through sheer force of personality and magnetism the CEO of Chuuten Corp. almost always assumes a superior position, even if his current wheelchair-related predicament has him crippled, his presence is anything but. While utterly pragmatic and ruthless, Mikado values genuine loyalty over blind obeisance -- an honest, thought-out disagreement is worth a hundred blind 'aye's. Strict but fair as an employer, he is considered generous and tends to give people a chance even in the face of failure, if he feels they genuinely tried and couldn't help the results. After all, he hates wasting people and things that might still be of use. 'History' Many, many centuries ago, Mikado was a great sorcerer-priest who lived on the Jade Disk of Hé; he served as the living seal and warden-representative of the Great Dragon that later became known as the Beast of Calamity when its rage and the battle to re-seal it turned the Jade Disk into a scar upon the face of the planet. : The Sorcerer Priest - Seeds of Calamity One might ask how one becomes the living seal to a deity of destruction. The answer is that it is a process wrought in pain and suffering, framed by the will of steel birthed from shame and humiliation. Mikado can no longer remember the exact details, but he was born as the second son of a noble family during a time when war constantly loomed at the horizon. Since he was not the heir, he was sent to a neighbor lord as a token of safety and mutual loyalty. He was not treated badly, but the simple fact that he was not wanted and a foreign entity in the household was made all too apparent. However, the lord under whose protection he had been placed betrayed Mikado's father and invaded, slaying all members of the family -- only Mikado himself remained and was placed in prison, bound and tortured, but kept alive since his blood gave his captor legitimacy as lord protector of the territory that was now, in theory, Mikado's. But with wars raging all over Hé, Mikado was eventually freed. The details remain hazy and Mikado cannot recall the names of any of those involved, but he eventually ended up under the tutelage of an old priest who was the prior living seal, he who ensured that the Great Beast would not be released by merit of his existence. But the old man was bitter and had grown devious over the long years of his existence -- his position afforded him immortality, but he had already been old when the boon had been granted and ages of a decrepit existence had twisted him. He treated Mikado harshly, abused him and even forced himself upon the young man one night. Due to the sorcery the old man wielded, there was little Mikado could do to oppose him -- until he attempted it again another night and Mikado, unthinking and crazy from rage and fear, went for a dagger. And the old man died with his belly cut open; as he had planned. For with his death, he finalized the succession ritual and imparted the role he had played upon his furious apprentice. So imbued by immortality and magic, for the first time in his life in a position to grasp for prestige and status he deserved, the new Dragon Priest spent much time studying the ways of magic, of scholarship and the ways of war and strategy. Of the martial and cultural arts, though he barely remembers a fraction of these skills. The cause of this incident were the machinations of an evil cult who venerated the destructive aspect of the creature and sought to free it rather than direct its rage towards more productive purposes as Mikado had done. Eventually, they succeeded in slaying the Dragon Priest and stole his power; power with which they freed the Great Beast and brought it into the world, with devastating results. Mikado, at the time, was indeed dead. But when the Great Beasts of the world came together to imprison their powerful antagonist. The moment they succeeded and a new seal was erected, a small remnant of its power coursed through the remnant of their mystic connection and shocked Mikado's body back to life. He had been dead for over a week. His physical body was repaired in a flash and his spirit dragged away from its natural end, both united once more. The trauma was rather unique and extensive and left Mikado in a catatonic stasis, buried inside a cave, for a long long time. There was one group who braved the horrible vast emptiness of Hé, the shadow-warriors of the Jade Masks. It was they who found him, who used their magics to revive him -- they could feel a deep, terrible power inside the stranger's soul, though his identity remained a mystery until he named himself. His memories of the past were vague and muddled, his knowledge of the Winding Rivers gone, but he remembered the terrible power of the Great Beasts all too well and came to covet it; indeed, the more he heard about this brave new world, the more his desire for power grew. And there was something tugging at him, deep in his soul, tugging him towards the West. The Jade Mask assassins taught him as much as they could of the modern world, but their talents could not restore whatever spiritual or mental blockade kept Mikado from accessing his magic. Still, between his intellect and personal magnetism, there was little doubt that he would find a way to succeed -- after some unsuccessful expeditions, they managed to unearth an old sealed tomb that the ancient man had remembered which was still intact, plundering its vaults for treasure. After all, how could he ask for funds from his saviors when he had given them nothing in return but, perhaps, a measure of hope? Half of what they had found Mikado gladly left to the assassins, the other half would be used to travel to the nearest harbor off of the devastated mainland and, from there, to Torun, where he would see about acquiring the greatest power of the modern age. A power that he had identified as 'wealth' and 'influence'. In this new world, sorcery might make one mighty, but there was little that could not be bought. With the aid of the Jade Masks and his seeding money, Mikado created an identity for himself in Torun as the son of two immigrants with Héian lineage, visiting a local university to close the gap between his foggy memories and the modern age -- quickly establishing himself as a wunderkind and polymath, he saw an opportunity when he learned of a small engineering company that was hired for contract work on a new war-machine, quickly getting himself hired there. Soon, he was running the place and established the newly renamed Chuuten as a brand and, eventually, a large company of its own. His seeding money was used to jump-start its growth, which went further and further as the war raged on, until the Chuuten Corporation owned a quarter of the market share, second only to Krauler Industries in sheer industrial power and influence (though second by a rather wide margin, as even Mikado's clever leadership and the talent involved could only do so much against a vastly more influential, powerful, and resourceful entity). As the CEO and Leader of the Board, Mikado's control of the Corporation is not exactly absolute -- but thanks to his continued association of and support by the Jade Masks and their premier agent in his employ, Nada, most of the other board members cannot oppose him -- not to mention that they have much to gain under his competent leadership, yet much more to lose should they hinder his efforts. The recent move to Auveraine and the decision to place their new headquarters there had a number of reasons: political, economical and personal. Indeed, the deepest underground levels of the Chuuten Corp. building are entirely closed off for all but those with Mikado's express permission, which suggests that he may have some sort of secret project in the works down there. Between the many experiments with technology, magic, and combinations thereof, a recent setback has left Mikado rather debilitated: an experiment with a newer, more powerful GOLEM left both of his legs crushed beyond repair, the arcane nature of the attacker preventing ordinary healing magic from simply restoring them to form -- or perhaps his now-questionable immortality is interfering with the process, but, since he keeps it a secret, it is impossible to say. He is, however, quite motivated in looking for a cure, unwilling to accept that the injury might permanently place him in a wheelchair. On Immortality: Whether his status as an immortal remains or not is unclear, but with his revival from the century-long stasis Mikado has once again begun to age. As a sorcerer-priest he was a perpetual youth, wise beyond his physical years, but since the Jade Masks revived him in modern day he has begun to grow older like any human. Perhaps he has lost his unaging quality the very moment he died and was the living seal no more, perhaps it merely slumbers, locked away with all the other arcane secrets he once possessed. 'Advantages' *Authority I (Special) - Though Mikado holds no governmental or military rank, he is highly influental and has many contacts in high places. His wealth and position as the head of one of the largest weapon producers, one that also keeps its own armed forces, doesnt hurt either. *Charisma III (Common) - Highly charismatic and a natural leader. *Cunning III (Common) - A shrewd businessman with many, many years of experience. Even if he doesn't remember most of those. *Inscrutable I (Rare) - A master at hiding his own emotions. *Intelligence II (Common) - Well-educated and a polymath. *Wealth III (Special) - As CEO of Chuuten Corp., Mikado is obviously quite wealthy. Quite wealthy indeed. 'Linked Story Elements' *Chuuten Corp. *Hé Shi Bi, The Jade Disk of Hé *The Great Beasts *ArcaTech MM (Momentary Magic) production line *ArcaTech GOLEM